A High level meeting under the Chairmanship of Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Union Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences is being scheduled tomorrow to focus on key initiatives required in the frontier areas of Science & Technology to acquire a global leadership position in these areas and to harness the nation’s S&T capabilities in furtherance of the XIIth Five Year Plan objectives.
The meeting will be attended by Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Member (S&T), Planning Commission, Secretaries of Department of Science & Technology, Department of Bio-Technology, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Information & Technology, Ministry of Mines and other senior scientists.
The issues likely to be considered in this meeting include:
• Concrete action plan for upgrading our super-computer capabilities.
• Explore steps to give further impetus to Deep Sea Mining and acquisition of the requisite technological capabilities in this area.
• To address issues/gaps with respect to our ability and capability to translate fundamental research into innovative products and services and commercialisation/scaling of technology from Pilot Projects onwards.
• Big ideas for the future like – The Super Microscope, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Ocean Acidification and Interstellar Chemistry.